Sentence for woman dog strangler

Swansea magistrates heard the dogs were found dead in the bath

A woman with a history of mental illness has been given a six-month conditional discharge after admitting strangling two dogs.

Denise Clement, 37, of Portmead, Swansea, was sentenced at Swansea Magistrates' Court after lengthy psychiatric reports were completed.

She admitted the charges in a prosecution brought by the RSPCA.

Clement told a mental health nurse what she had done during a visit to Morriston Hospital in the city.

John Tarrant, for the RSPCA, told the court last month that Clement had apparently intended to drown both dogs.

But she had asphyxiated them in the process of applying pressure to their necks.

Mr Tarrant said Clement "had indicated that voices told her to do so".

Clement admitted two charges of causing unnecessary harm to two crossbreed dogs, named Buster and Levi, killing them in an inappropriate manner, knowing the act would do so.

The acts were carried out on 21 July last year in the bathroom at Clement's home.

Previously the court heard an RSPCA officer dispatched to the house found the dead dogs in a bath of water.

It was later established the dogs had been asphyxiated, rather than drowned, after pressure had been applied to their necks.

District judge Richard Williams passed sentence after taking into consideration the advice of a full psychiatric report.